Five Key Wine Components and How to Detect Them

A lesson on the basic words and phrases you need to know about wine

Let’s start with acid:
Of course, acid has a tart flavor. Incidentally, if you refer to high-acid wine as sour you’re going to get a very sour look from the winemaker. In wine parlance, sour means spoiled, as in gone to vinegar!

If you want to become acquainted with the tart flavor of relatively high-acid wine, some common white examples are sparkling wine, Sauvignon Blanc and Riesling. Northern Italy turns out a lot of lean, zippy reds.

Some wines, especially reds, are so flavorful that it’s difficult to taste the acid. Usually, you can still gauge it. As you taste the wine, notice the way your mouth begins to water, especially along the sides of your tongue and under it. Thus, the birth of the phrase “mouth-watering acidity.” Now that you’ve noticed it, you’ll begin to differentiate the levels as you taste different styles of wine. Generally, white wines are higher in acid than reds. Well-made dessert wines can really turn on the water works in your mouth because the sweetness needs to be balanced by a high level of acidity.

Why do you care? Acid is important because it keeps the wine fresh and lively on the palate. It has a cleansing effect and makes the wine easy to pair with food. Acid is a great, natural preservative! Wines that are high in acid (but balanced) will have fairly long lives and a better chance of retaining their fruitiness and freshness as time goes by.

The source: The grapes, although acid additions are permitted in many wine regions. As the grapes ripen, the sugar increases and the acid decreases. At harvest time, timing is everything!

Tannin
Do you have a sudden urge to brush your teeth after tasting red wine? Then you recognize tannin – it’s that simple. It runs around your mouth seeking out protein and then clings to it, which explains the drying sense of grip on your gums – all over your mouth, really – and the furry teeth. The flavor of tannin is extremely bitter, so winemakers try to craft the wine in such a way that you feel it, rather than taste it. As you taste your wine now, you will probably remember other wines you’ve tasted that were more tannic or less tannic, so you'll begin to recognize relative levels.

Acid accentuates the hardness of tannin, so high-acid wine that’s also tannic can be hard to enjoy when it’s young. As the wine ages, the tannin enlarges with oxidation and gradually falls out of the wine as part of the sediment. So, the wine gradually softens and the texture becomes more velvety over time.

Why do you care? Tannin is an important part of the texture of red wine – when managed properly it gives it a nice chewiness. Like acid, tannin is a natural preservative. It's part of a group called polyphenols, which are anti-oxidants that prolong the wine's life. The more tannic the wine, provided it's well made and well-balanced, the longer its life in the bottle when stored properly.

The source: The biggest source of tannin in wine is the grape skins. Other sources are the seeds, stems and oak (wine barrels contribute wood tannin if they're relatively new). Red wines are almost always higher in tannin than white because the winemaker must ferment the juice and skins together to get the purple color. Whites receive little or no juice to skin contact.

I want to echo what's been said - an excellent article. If there's anything I'd like to have seen more of, it would be an elaboration of smell. I realize that you were talking about five major taste components, but in terms of the experience, the smell/nose/bouquet/whatever of a wine is, or can be, incredible. My first "wow" moment with wine was a 2001 Rioja that provided a hit of tobacco and saddle leather that I still remember. How can wine do that?

When I taste unknown wines for the first time I focus on the alcohol content, tannin levels, acidity and residual lingering taste and more on how it stays on the palate. the bouquet is of less important for me (poor smell ability) but after reading this post it is an important step in the enjoyment process. Get more tips on wines from le Marche by visiting this useful blog: vinomarche@blogspot.com

Thanks to all of you for taking the time to make these lovely comments! You've made my day! TomG, yours is a really great question that's hard to answer since there are so few absolutes in wine. But - I think you've given me the inspiration for my next post! Thanks! Nancy

This was a very interesting article. I appreciate the section on acidity and tannins and oxidation, leading to eventual softening. My wife and I lived in West Germany and Southern Italy for quite a long time, and we are often amazed at what we call "the big red California thing." A very high percentage of the CA cabs, in particular, just seem so uniform and less distinct to us, like there is a mouth feel that everyone is striving for. We have encountered it in some French reds and in the Cusomano family Noa and some 100% cab sauv from Sicily -- and we like that smooth velvet -- but it just seems that the red cab blends we drink now that we have moved back to the US are almost standardized. I think, now, that it must be because of that combo of high alcohol and the tannins from grape sources and the newer oak. We were beginning to assume that Michel Rolland had somehow taken over the entire state of California and was micro-oxygenating everything.

Well done I always find it hard in the tasting room to have the time to explain all the points you put in this report. The new taster wants to know which wine is best? Hard to answer I feel the best wine is the one you love to work with the food you intend to serve We all benefit from listening. Often one of my servers seems to jump the gun and start talking about the wine before the taster has really had a chance to take it all in. The tasting room can be a good place to learn about wine and tasting. Never be afraid to ask questions.

I agree, Geneventiv. I used to do an hour-long class to go over these things. No way you could get it done in a tasting bar situation. Looks like we have similar backgrounds - I've spent a whole lotta time in tasting rooms. I wish people would trust their palates to tell them which wine is best. Thanks for the comment! n

I agree, Geneventiv. I used to do an hour-long class to go over these things. No way you could get it done in a tasting bar situation. Looks like we have similar backgrounds - I've spent a whole lotta time in tasting rooms. I wish people would trust their palates to tell them which wine is best. Thanks for the comment! n

Thanks to all of you for taking the time to make these lovely comments! You've made my day! TomG, yours is a really great question that's hard to answer since there are so few absolutes in wine. But - I think you've given me the inspiration for my next post! Thanks! Nancy